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Do NOT legalize marijuana!

I just turned 41 this year and I’m pretty set in my ways. I know what I like and what I don’t like, and what I want and don’t want. However, that doesn’t mean I wont change my mind about how I feel on certain issues, given enough input to make me reconsider my beliefs. Just such a reconsidering occurred last night for me at the Alice Cooper concert.

First, a preface. I have never done any illegal drugs. I’ve never had much desire to, and I’ve had plenty of opportunities to indulge. In high school I saw a couple of friends screwing up their lives by doing drugs, and that was enough to quench any thirst I had to try them myself; I didn’t want to end up like them. However, I didn’t begrudge anybody else the desire to get high. We all have our crutches to get us through the day. For some it’s weed, for some it’s booze, for some it’s exercise or reading or masturbating or writing or eating or whatever else helps to numb us from the sharper edges of life.

I’ve been fairly vocal about my desire to legalize marijuana. I believe it is far less harmful to the general public than is alcohol. I won’t go much into stereotypes but it seems like when you get high on weed you’re more likely to stay at home than to get behind the wheel. I’ve also felt that decriminalizing marijuana doesn’t mean that people are free to fuck up under the influence of it; just like with booze you’re responsible for what you do, high or sober. Legalizing it doesn’t mean you have a license to be a dick.

After last night’s concert though, I have changed my mind, big time, and for purely selfish reasons.

Do NOT legalize marijuana! For the love of me and my selfish reasons, keep it illegal!

Why? Well, last night was a twin bill of Alice Cooper and Rob Zombie (with the Murderdolls opening, meh) in an open-air venue. It was Halloween before Halloween, and most people in the crowd were dressed accordingly – thanks, ladies! I do appreciate it. Evidently, quite a few people there also thought that Halloween is much better baked on some stink-ass weed. God damn, the stench was almost constant; breathing clean air was a rarity. It was harsh. I can’t see how anybody can like that smell.

This got me to thinking, in between staring at boobs and trying to catch a whiff of fresh air: if this is what an open-air concert smells like when pot is illegal, how much worse will it be if it is legal and people are free to spark up? It would be fucking intolerable for me and totally ruin my concert experience.

And yes, I know, people get high at a concert to enhance their experience; it makes it better for them. See, I just don’t give a fuck. I don’t care about your concert experience, I care about mine, and that horrible stench is harshing my natural buzz. Get high before you come in. Bring pot brownies and chow down on them. Go somewhere else besides right by me and get high, I don’t care. So yeah, to reverse my previously strongly-held conviction:

3 thoughts on “Do NOT legalize marijuana!”

Hello there; I found your blog from reading Metal Sludge. 🙂 I think marijuana legislation is 50 years behind the times, although I’m on the fence about legalization. Even if the measure does pass in California, pot is still illegal at the federal level. So it’d be a hollow victory for the state. And the Obama administration isn’t poised to move at all on the issue beyond relaxing rules for medical usage.

I’ve come home from many a concert with a contact high…LOL. I mostly buy bands’ music video/concert DVDs in lieu of seeing them live, so having to put up with malodorous crowds isn’t much of an issue for me.